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Old 11 Oct 19, 12:45 PM  
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Melanie R
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Glaciers & Glowtinis - Day 1 Vancouver

I’m sure it will be a very familiar experience to lots of us on the first day of the holiday, but predictably I was wide awake at 4:30am given I had crashed out way too soon the previous night!

I was so excited to finally be here, that for once I was quick to be up and showered and headed to the balcony to watch the city start to come to life. The layout of the hotel is such that every room is on a corner and has a large balcony overlooking the city, so it was lovely to stand and watch the street start to come to life. Predictably for Vancouver, it was raining and the current forecast had it set to rain for the whole day.
This made me really grateful I had chosen to spend today using the hop on hop off bus to take in all the sights of the city. Given I only had 1 day here, I had considered doing this and had also thought about taking an excursion up to Grouse Mountain and the Capilano suspension bridge, but given the low clouds and rain in force today I had totally made the right decision!

I had noticed the night before that there was a Starbucks on the corner of the block, so I decided to head out for coffee, then make plans for what I particularly wanted to visit that day on the bus tour.



As I was sipping my latte, I checked my phone again and noticed the forecast had now changed to give a large window in the middle of the day when the rain was now due to stop, so I made up my mind to delay the start of the tour to take this into account.



I headed back to my room to chill for a little, then packed up my bag for the day and headed out to find the bus stop for the tour. That took all of 30 seconds – it was literally right in front of the hotel! Stop 4 of the green route was labelled Blue Horizon and there was a tour guide stood at the stop with his tour board full of information. I had pre booked the ticket, so had a quick chat with him, he scanned my ticket, gave me a sticker to wear so that I didn’t need to keep showing my ticket to the driver and advised that the next bus was due in around 15 minutes.

I noticed that on the opposite corner from Starbucks there was another coffee house which looked really nice, so I checked that I was allowed to take coffee onto the bus, and headed to get my second coffee of the day! 10:30 am and I was sipping my second coffee and waiting to board the bus which arrived almost as soon as I had taken a seat.



I hopped on the bus and took a seat by the window as it set off on its tour of the city. The 2 main areas I was really interested in seeing more of were Stanley Park and Gastown, both of which would be covered on this particular loop, so I settled back to listen to the commentary as we headed towards Stanley Park.



The driver was extremely informative and had a lovely speaking voice so it was a real pleasure to listen to everything she was telling us of the history of Vancouver. We slowly made our way through the city down towards the sea front and I was struck by how vibrant the shopping areas were – I have got so used to high streets in the UK having so many empty properties and cheap “tat” shops, yet I was passing streets filled with shops of all varieties (I did enjoy passing all the designer ones and was tempted to stop at Tiffany’s but managed to restrain myself!) and it was amazing the difference it made to the overall atmosphere of the city!

We made our way up through Stanley Park, with lots of stops for people to hop on and off for the cafes/restaurants and the totem pole area (I skipped this due to time, but would love to spend much more time in Stanley Park some day!)











We continued our tour of the city,along the sea wall,



family recreation areas, crossing the Lion’s Gate bridge (which I would be cruising under the following day!),





You can see the low cloud in the pics obscuring the tops of the mountains making me glad I hadn’t booked the Grouse Mountain excursion!

We saw Vancouver’s version of EPCOT



and their novel ideas of car parks,



Vancouver’s own version of The Little Mermaid - our guide told us it’s a local custom to dress her up for special occasions!



and then we were arriving at Gastown, the area I definitely wanted to spend time and explore. One of the things pointed out on our tour, was the streetlights which changed design in the different areas of the city, even changing colour to red as we passed through the Chinatown area. Our driver was full of little details like this which would ordinarily go unnoticed 😁

Once in Gastown, I realised I was starving – I had had my fix of coffee that morning, but hadn’t actually eaten anything, so I saw a sign down a side street for an Italian restaurant which had an appealing menu, so I headed down the cobbled street and into the restaurant.



It was probably around 2pm by now, and the restaurant was practically empty, but I was greeted warmly and escorted to a secluded table and given some water, bread with olive oil and a menu.



There were so many things I could have chosen, I almost went for pizza, but then I remembered I was heading on a 7 day cruise on a ship which had a pizza bar around the pool so knew I was likely to be having pizza on several occasions over the coming days, so decided to have chicken parmigiana instead. This came with spaghetti in a marinara sauce and was absolutely delicious, even if there was more than enough for 2 – but I hadn’t eaten since the plane the day before and suddenly realised I was starving! I ordered a gin and tonic to go with it (I’m on holiday so afternoon drinking totally allowed!) and dug out my Kindle to read while I waited.





It was a lovely meal and the staff were very attentive without being obtrusive – definitely somewhere I will return to on any future visits (and Vancouver is definitely somewhere I plan to revisit and spend a little more time!) and when the bill arrived I was surprised how reasonable it was – just $28.95 CAN 😊



I settled the bill and headed back outside where I could see the clouds gathering indicating the promised rain was due, and before long it did indeed start to drizzle! It was a lovely warm day though and I had dressed for the weather so I wasn’t going to let it spoil my day, and so I carried on regardless! I checked out some of the souvenir shops and added to my fridge magnet collection – I had already decided my luggage allowance wasn’t going to let me buy anything too big or heavy, so fridge magnets were the way to go! These were some of the items I managed to resist 😂







I then headed over to the famous steam clock which I had been looking forward to seeing. This is one of only 2 steam powered clocks which are still functional in the world, and it was fascinating to watch. The pipes at the top were emitting steam on a constant basis, and every 15 minutes, the clock whistled to the tune of the Big Ben chimes – it felt really strange to be so far away from the UK and yet still hear such a familiar sound!



Further up the street was the Vancouver Tower with a restaurant at the top - this is on my list for next time!



I found myself right outside a coffee shop offering brown sugar cinnamon lattes – I didn’t need asking twice, so headed in to buy my third coffee of the day! On an ordinary day, my usual intake is only 1 or 2, but the caffeine was keeping me going and it was absolutely delicious!

The rain was starting to come down heavier, so I headed back to the bus stop to hop back on to finish the loop – I was only a couple of stops away from completion, so was soon back at the Blue Horizon and very quickly dried off. The room I was in was huge and as well as a sofa also had a wing chair with a table next to it. I settled into the chair with my iPad to have a chill and watch the end of Iron Man 3 which I had managed to sleep through the previous night! I have to be honest, this chair was so amazingly comfortable I have started to look out for one similar to buy now I’m back home – perfect for reading!



As part of my bus ticket, I had the option of an extra evening tour of the city, but this left from Coal Harbour which was a 5 minute taxi ride away and as I looked out of the window it was pouring down, and was showing no signs of stopping any time soon, so I made the decision to stay put and have a relaxing evening in my room with a movie. This is the huge benefit of travelling solo – you don’t have to consider what anyone else wants to do and can change your plans to suit yourself at any time 😂

I still had some snacks I had packed for the plane, crisps and some biscuits, so I made a quick dash to the Starbucks on the corner for my final latte of the day, and had a very pleasant evening watching a movie, reading on my Kindle and grazing on snacks before heading to the enormous bed for the last time in this room.

Tomorrow would be checking out ready for my cruise! 😂

Edited at 12:58 PM.
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Old 11 Oct 19, 01:23 PM  
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kateh134
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A lovely start, even if the weather wasn’t too good. Love the message on the apron!
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Old 11 Oct 19, 09:03 PM  
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Kellea
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Looks amazing, cant wait for more x
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Old 12 Oct 19, 06:34 AM  
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stecee
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Vancouver looks lovely, if a little wet
Looking forward to reading the rest
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Old 12 Oct 19, 08:51 AM  
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Fab photos Melanie, the city looks really lovely, and you certainly made the most of your day! Love the souvenirs too so cute. The tower restaurant looks amazing I think I will definitely add this to my bucket list itinerary for my 50th! Looking forward to cruise posts...
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Old 12 Oct 19, 11:55 PM  
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Twentyyears
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So looking forward to seeing how you like Alaska, we still talk about it often, definitely a bucket list trip.
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Old 13 Oct 19, 01:30 PM  
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KarenG
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What a beautiful city and a lovely day exploring. Sorry about the weather though Your Italian food looked lush!
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Old 15 Oct 19, 08:29 PM  
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Melanie R
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Thanks for the lovely comments - I will be finishing this report before my next trip!
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Old 20 Oct 19, 06:34 PM  
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Great first day exploring! Would love to visit Vancouver.
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Old 25 Oct 19, 12:30 AM  
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Delighted you got the whole vibe about Vancouver and that you included the Steam Clock too. You covered so much of the city by bus and saw so much of the amazing things there.
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